Nine, Ten ... Never Sleep Again (3 page)

Valdemar looked
up at
Anna with his big blue eyes. Anna couldn't help
crying, not because of the fact that he had no arms, no. She had already
completely forgotten all about that and all she wanted was to take her baby
home. No, she was crying because, at that moment, holding him in her arms at
the hospital, she was happier than she had ever been in her life. Finally she
felt complete, finally she felt like her life had a meaning, a purpose.

She couldn't stop smiling and stroking him
gently across his face, putting her finger on his small nose.

The doctor kept talking about what their options
were, how they would get help from the county to make their home
handicap-friendly and help to take care of the baby in any way needed and that
they could provide a therapist to help the family cope with this tragedy and
burden that had come upon them.

Anna had stopped listening a long time ago. How
could anyone ever think that little boy could be a burden to her? How could he
be anything but a blessing to them?

"I'll go get the father now," the
doctor said and left.

Anna hardly noticed he was gone. She kept
looking at her baby boy, Valdemar, who stared back at her with his wondrous
eyes. Much to her surprise, he had stopped crying as soon as he was handed to
her. And ever since she had held him in her arms, he had been smiling, which
was really special and surprising, since Anna had read in her books preparing
to become a mother, than newborns didn't smile until weeks after they were
born.

That was when Anna first realized that Valdemar
was a very special child.

"Anna!" Michael stormed into the room.
He was pale and looked confused. "How are you?"

She lifted her head and looked at him. His eyes
were overwhelmed with fear and worry. "The doctor told me," he
said. 

Anna smiled. She lifted the baby higher so he
could better see him. Michael smiled insecurely. "Can I see?" he
said.

Anna nodded. Michael grabbed the blanket and
unwrapped the boy's shoulders. He gasped. Then his facial expression changed
drastically and he stepped backwards while shaking his head. "No," he
said.

"Michael," Anna said. "It will be
okay. We'll figure it out together. Like we always do, remember?"

But Michael didn't remember. He kept shaking his
head, staring at the boy's missing arms with a strange expression to his face,
which Anna didn't care for. She hurriedly re-covered the boy's shoulders with
the blanket and pulled him close to her body again. Michael stared at her like
he was appalled by her and the very fact that she was able to care for such a
misshapen creature, like it made him feel disgusted by her.

"Michael?" she said with a shiver to
her voice. "It's going to be okay. He's still our boy. He's still the
Valdemar we have been waiting for."

Michael shook his head. "No. No. That is
not my son."

"Michael?" Anna was crying now.
"How can you say such a thing? He's still your son and will always
be."

"No," Michael simply said, then turned
around and walked away.

Anna cried. Her entire body was shivering in
anger and desperation. "Michael!" she cried out after him, and
finally he turned to face her again. In his eyes she saw something she would
never forget for the rest of her life.

She saw blame. He was blaming her for what had
happened. He was blaming her for giving birth to a boy without arms. She gasped
and leaned back against the pillow. Never had she seen such resentment in her
beloved's eyes. Never had she seen such anger and disappointment. It hurt in
every bone of her body.

"Michael?" she said.

But he never answered.

"It seems
that you've
had your kidney removed."

The doctor standing next to Henrik Fenger's bed
looked like a pig, Henrik thought. He was big and fat and had almost pink skin.
And then there was the nose. It somehow reminded Henrik of a pig with the big
nostrils. He was repulsed by this person and even more by what he was now
telling him.

"My kidney?" he asked. "How the
hell …? Henrik felt dizzy and had to close his eyes for a second.

"It was very professionally done, so
whoever did it must have tried something like this before."

"Wha …? What? How? I want to know how this
could have happened. I demand to know!" Henrik had to hold back his rage.
Now that he had become clearer in his head, he felt nothing but anger for what
had happened and he wanted those behind it to pay.

"Well you were probably heavily sedated
first. That's why you didn't feel anything. But I really feel you should
discuss all this with the police when they get here."

"But what about my kidney?"

"You'll be fine with only one. Lots of
people live perfect lives with just one kidney."

"But where the hell is it now? Why would
anyone want to take my kidney?" Henrik was snorting in furor now.

The doctor shrugged. "I really feel you
should talk to the police about the details. I don't know much about it."

"Then get the fucking police here right
now!" Henrik yelled.

The doctor left and came back with a nurse who
gave Henrik something
to calm him down
,
the doctor said.

Henrik protested. "I don't want to be calm.
I'm angry. I want to see these people hung and tortured for what they've done
…"

"You really shouldn't get this agitated Mr.
Fenger," the nurse said. "Your body can't cope with it."

"Don't tell me what to do and what not to
do. I am angry and I am entitled to be very, very angry!" Henrik rose from
the bed and stormed towards the nurse with his hands towards her, grabbing her
around the throat, screaming and yelling. Suddenly he felt dizzy once again
and, shortly after, everything went black. The last thing he heard was the
nurse scream.

When Henrik opened his eyes again, he was
strapped to the bed and could hardly move his hands. "I'm sorry, Mr.
Fenger but we had to strap you down," the piggy doctor told him. "You
attacked one of our nurses and we can't have that happening again."

Henrik tried to pull his arms and legs loose,
but couldn't. He groaned and yelled in anger. "How dare you? I'm the
victim here!"

"The police are here and ready to talk to
you, when you're calm enough."

Henrik moaned and fought with the straps.

"I guess I can always tell them to come
back later," the doctor continued.

"No. No. Please don't. I'll stay
calm," Henrik pleaded, then drew in a deep breath. "I'm calm now. I'm
calm."

"Good. That's better. Your body can't
sustain those bursts of anger, Mr. Fenger. You have to try and stay calm."

Henrik nodded. "I will. I promise."

"Good. I'll let them know then," the
doctor said and left him.

As the minutes passed, Henrik fought to stay
calm, but it was really hard. This whole situation left him with such an
excruciating anger, one that he usually only showed towards his wife and kid at
home behind closed doors. He never lost it at work or in front of strangers.
But this … this … was just too much for him to be able to restrain himself.

"Mr. Fenger?"

Two officers entered his room. They looked like
idiots. Just like all other police officers Henrik had ever encountered. Was
the entire police force all morons? Henrik took a couple of deep breaths to
stay calm. "Yes," he said, trying really hard to smile.

The officer looked down at his notepad. He
looked like it annoyed him to be there. As if Henrik's case was beneath him. It
made Henrik even more furious.

"We have been updated on your most
unfortunate situation by Doctor Hansen …"

"There is nothing
unfortunate
about my situation,"
Henrik said through gritted teeth.

"Excuse me?"

"What?"

"You said something?"

"Well, you used the word unfortunate and I
didn't like that."

"You didn't like my choice of words?"

"No. My situation isn't unfortunate,"
Henrik said, trying really hard to restrain himself from exploding.

"Then, what is it?" the officer asked.

"It's a CRIME," Henrik yelled.
"It's a fucking crime that someone has to pay big-time for."

The officer nodded. "That's what I meant.
We agree, then. This unfortunate crime has to be investigated, of course, and
Officer Frandsen and myself, Officer Jansson, will be the ones to do just
that."

Henrik stared at the two buffoons in front of
him.
Christ, here I am in fucking pain, the
worst trouble in my life and these are the guys I have to depend on? Freaking
Starsky and Hutch?

"So what is your take on this?" He
asked.

The two buffoons looked at each other. "Our
take? I'm not sure I understand," officer Jansson said.

"What do you make of this? Of what happened
to me? Who did this and why?" Henrik said, trying hard not to yell again.

Officer Jansson nodded. "Oh yes. Well we're
probably talking about organ theft here."

You think?

"Okay. I kind of figured that out
myself," Henrik said with a sigh. "Since someone stole one of my
organs, that is. But what I meant is, do you have any idea who might have done
this to me and, more importantly, do you have any idea how to find them and
make them pay?"

Officer Frandsen cleared his throat. Henrik
looked at him expectantly, hoping for just a small glimpse of hope.

"To be frank, we don't," he said.
"As far as we know this is a first in this country. Organ theft is mostly
seen in Eastern European and Asian countries."

"So you have no idea who took my
kidney?" Henrik said, flabbergasted.

Both officers shook their heads. "I'm afraid
we don't, no," one of them said. Henrik didn't care who.

"Were you alone in the room?" Officer
Janssen asked.

Henrik hesitated. He could hardly tell them
about the girl, now could he?
The girl
?
Could it? Could it be her? It had to be. It had to be her. She had to have
something to do with this. But he couldn't tell Starsky and Hutch here, could
he? ‘Cause then his wife would find out. Then she would leave him and take Thomas
with her like she had sworn she would if he ever cheated on her again. No, he
couldn't risk that.

"So … what do we do next?" he asked.

The officers looked at each other again, then at
Henrik. "Well first,
we
take
your statement and then
we
have
to get back to the station and see what
we
can do," Officer Frandsen said. "We will start an investigation and
get in contact with our Eastern European contacts to help us. We suggest that
you stay here at the hospital till they're ready to let you out and then you go
on to live your life like you used to. We'll be in touch."

After they left, Henrik stared for a long time
at the door. It was in those crucial minutes following that he slowly realized
that it was time to take matters into his own hands.